Community Technologies to the Rescue! How 43.000 People came together to tackle the Corona crisis

In this talk, one of the co-organizers of the award winning #WeVsVirus hackathon presents how seven civil society organizations and the German government organized the worldwide largest online event to find innovative solutions to Covid-19. After just one weekend, 1.500 ideas were developed and supported by a six-months follow-up program with around 1.7 million Euro in funding from companies, foundations and the German Ministry of Education and Research. The best of these ideas are now in use all over Germany. The hackathon also showed the potential of civil society and the power of cooperation. It poses the question how such digital formats can be used for citizens’ participation and new ways of political decision-making.